AIBU to feel conned by Debenhams

[HalfMumHalfBiccit]

AIBU to feel conned by Debenhams who have added a £4.49 ‘delivery protection’ charge. I was happily doing a bit of Xmas (Black Friday sales) shopping. Made 2 orders with Debenhams. Noticed a teeny box that needs unchecking with the delivery protection charge above on my second order. Very easy to miss. So I’ve wasted an extra £4.49 to protect a t-shirt on the first order. Woe is me. Cries into gin. Vent. Wonder how many others have had this without realising.

I will chalk this to experience and never use them again. Shame.

Debenhams are iffy at the moment, they took bloody ages to sort my refund out.

They sound similar to HoF and Sports Direct for purchasing from, I avoid them like the plague as well

I had huge issues with Debenhams recently. We were doing my daughter’s room up as a surprise while she was away, and so ordered a white piece of furniture with next day delivery. It arrived the next day, in grey. The only way to contact them was by chat or email, so I let them know. It took at least 24 hours to respond to my messages each time. So I’d sent a message and 24 hours later they’d ask a question. I’d answer with as much detail as possible, and they’d ask something else 24 hours later. I’d reply, and they’d reply saying “hi, what’s the issue we can help you with?” a day later and I’d have to go through explaining it all again. Three times they offered me a 10% discount to keep the item in the wrong colour for the room, so I declined. They kept asking me to choose a date for collection, and by the time they replied to me, they could no longer book that date. I had to go through my bank to get a refund in the end. Wouldn’t order anything else from them.

Stay well away from Debenhams. I was waiting for a £90 refund for weeks. I only got my money back by emailing the CEO. All emails, WhatsApp messages to customer service were ignored.

I work for a company that sells through Debenhams.
Your order/contract is with Debenhams but the goods you ordered are shipped from the manufacturers warehouse. This is great (for Debenhams) as they are not paying for warehouses or staff costs.
Unfortunately this means when the customer returns an item it goes back to the manufacturers warehouse, this place has no contract with the customer so, especially when they are busy, returns inevitably go to the bottom of the pile in terms of things to get done.
Debenhams don't refund the customer until the manufacturers notify them about the return so if the warehouse staff are busy there is no notification/refund.
Customers then do a bit of research and ring the manufacturers head office frothing at the mouth demanding their refund. The only problem being we are situated 40+ minutes away from the warehouse and know nothing about your return, you can read your order number to me as many times as you like but I don't have a system that will recognise it. Your only option is to pester Debenhams 🤷‍♀️
I have been told by an angry Debenhams customer that I 'shouldn't be allowed to work in customer services' which is funny because....I don't! You only ended up speaking to me is because you googled an obscure number off the Internet and in terms of my job I couldn't give a shit about your refund!

It really is a case of buyer beware with them now they are completely online.

What does the protection even cover exactly? The retailer is responsible for the package until you receive it anyway

I wondered this too

Start a chargeback from the card company, citing the CRA upthread.

In disputes between suppliers and customers, the onus is on the supplier to provide evidence of the validity of their claim.

If the card company won't comply, escalate it to the Ombudman. That'll be a couple of person-hours they'll never see again.

It is a protection from Debenhams trying to fleece you anymore

Having read this thread I will never shop with them again.

Very annoying op. Message them on sm & you might get it refunded. I'm gutted as I bought a 2nd hand Switch for £170 from Cash Converters 2 weeks ago. Went in yesterday and they had them for £90 😭

Debenhams is now marketplace.
It is essentially poshed up Alibaba.
So are b&q and Wayfair so do be aware and be careful what you order. Absolute no quality guarantee

Debenhams are awful. I ordered 4 chairs they said were delivered. The picture wasn’t my house. They told me they didn’t sell the item and I had to contact the company that dispatched the item as Debenhams weren’t the real seller. I couldn’t get any response as they said they didn’t recognise the order number - it wasn’t one of theirs…….never got a refund

I made an order through boohoo last night. They had the same box, already checked. I made sure to uncheck it.

Exactly my experience

I posted on a different thread, beware because they don't disclose what the clothing or footwear is made of on their website either, which I'm pretty sure is unlawful.

What you'll also see is different branding and pricing on their website for the same items sold under one of the other brands also purchased by Boohoo - this happens absolutely all the time e.g. with Dorothy Perkins which is absolutely ridiculous as it's the same group of companies. Really dodgy and the quality is often shocking.

My teen DC ordered a Christmas gift which never arrived- we have one email stating ‘item delivers’ and one since that says ‘item dispatched’. It’s weeks since it was ordered and was £50. Their chatbots or whoever runs customer service aren’t answering and the online parcel tracking (Evri I think) stopped working(presumably someone marked the item delivered).
Does anyone have any hacks to contact them or should she instigate a chargeback with the bank? 🙏

I have been messaging them for 6 months re a refund of £60 they owe me. They spin the process out by asking for more info and then waiting weeks to reply. They have told me 3 times the money has been refunded but it hasn’t. I have now asked credit card co to refund. Would never buy from them again.

Also, be careful, there are loads of scam accounts on social media which are not Debenhams. The only way to contact them is WhatsApp and email so please ignore any replies you get on X etc.

I had the same thing done by Purestep when I bought shoes. I didn't notice it had been added til it was too late. I'm sure it's intentionally designed that you don't see it as I've never had that before when ordering from other companies over the years.

Can we keep this thread going please? I can't believe I didn't know how poor Debenhams customer service is now. I feel we need to spread the word before others buy from them.

I'm a month into waiting for a returns label. The only way to contact them is via FB. It's AI bot hell, and the people who respond after days are doing exactly the same as the people before them.

I've now read about others being scammed as the OP was - pre checked boxes are illegal under UK law.

Don't buy from them.

I ordered something a while back and at the time didn’t realise it was a marketplace item. It arrived, quality was absolutely terrible and wasn’t like the item pictured. Debenhams could only say ‘return it’ which I did, but I then discovered there was no option to review the item on there to warn others. I tried to tell Debenhams I believed the item to be fake, they couldn’t have been less interested.

at the time (and I’ve not looked in a while so forgive me if it’s changed) you could review a Debenhams item but not marketplace, so all the Chinese cheap tat is up there with little warning.

Lesson learned and not a company I’d use again.

There’s a fb group for unhappy Debenhams customers, it’s pretty scary reading some of the posts.

It's not Debenhams, they went bust. It's another company using the name and goodwill that the original Debenhams built up over years. And trashing that reputation